Lessons of Life

by Gregory Allen Butler

The lessons of life are awaiting us all. To the impatient come opportunities for patience. To the cowardly, opportunities for bravery. To the distracted, opportunities for focus. Whatever the defect, life steers us in the requirerd direction so that we may transcend it. We need but pay attention to what the lessons are.

Why else would a soul go to the bother to be born if it didn’t have lessons to learn in life? I have a friend that when asked where he went to school, responds with, "The school of hard knocks." To some extent that is true for all of us, but I have noticed that the knocks come harder in direct proportion to our resistance to the learning.

The unaware might easily say, "What lessons do I need to learn?" Whatever the lesson, the goal is the same – removing barriers to self. We all have in our possession the infinity of consciousness. But there is one problem: Impediments obstructing the flow of consciousness and therefore blocking the perception of ourselves as infinite beings.

A few nights ago it was obvious what lesson life was sending my way. I was visiting the Meher Spiritual Center where the speed limit is 10 miles per hour. Slow as that is, I ended up behind someone going 5 miles per hour. I was ready to park and walk the last half-mile to the event I was attending. And then at the event I ended up sitting behind this very same driver whose head blocked my view. Patience sometimes is not my strong suit. It was funny for me when I was able to step aside, detach from the scene, and witness my reactions. When it became obvious that this was happening at my expense, so that I might grow from the experience, the sting of it was lessened.

Perhaps the most profound lesson of life is learning to accept what is. As we develop the skill of living more and more fully in the present moment, we find that our awareness is enhanced. The habit of our minds to live in the past causes us to view the present through the filters of the past – past fears, biases, phobias, pain, and insufficiency. That is not seeing. That is a state of hypnosis. To see life as it is we need to be awake –dehypnotized, if you will.

The key to successfully living in the present moment is to strengthen our power of attention. Through attention, we gain insight. From insight, we gain energy. And from this energy we can act and interact with the present moment, as it is.

In the movie, Peaceful Warrior, Socrates, the aging gas station mechanic and mentor to Olympic hopeful Dan Millman, says "There is never nothing going on." To the attentive, this is always true. Consider this passage from Emerson in his essay on Nature:

...the reflections of trees and flowers in glassy lakes; the musical, steaming, odorous south wind, which converts all trees to wind-harps; the crackling and spurting of hemlock in the flames, or on pine logs, which yield glory to the walls and faces in the sitting-room, -- these are the music and pictures of the most ancient religion.

Wherever you find yourself, go into the moment fully. Take notice that "there is never nothing going on." Give what you see your full attention. Try to understand the mystery of life behind it – the beauty or the ugliness, or even the beauty in the ugliness; the intelligence or the ignorance, or the striving of ignorance for intelligence.

These types of interactions with what is help in the awakening of consciousness. It does so by pulling us away from the limits of a conditioned past.

When you are confronted by beauty, in whatever form -- nature, art, music, or even a beautiful smile -- know that life is inviting you into its embrace, free of the past, free of the future, existing only now. Give it your full attention. Appreciate it. Know that its beauty is but a reflection of the beauty that created it, the infinite intelligence that pervades all of existence. Know that you too are an integral part of this infinity. Know that you are looking at a reflection of your true self, which is whole and perfect.

What better lesson could life ever give? We only need to pay attention.